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Many recently democratized countries in Central and Eastern Europe,
having escaped from communist rule and planned economies, face
pressing problems related to the notions of tax evasion, trust and
state capacities. Tax morale in changing political and economic
contexts is of crucial importance. This raises a series of
questions: What are the conditions under which people agree to pay
taxes? Why do people avoid taxes? To what extent do the reasons for
tax evasion vary from one region to another? The authors of this
volume address these questions and try to assess the progress which
has been made in Central and Eastern Europe with regard to
improving tax morale through tax reforms and strengthening of
extractive state capacities. A main insight is the complex causal
relationship between the quality of fiscal institutions and tax
morale. In addition, huge differences between countries of the
former Soviet Union and central European countries, which are now
members of the EU, can be observed not only at the level of
democratic governance, of state capacities and the structures of
trust, but also with regard to tax morale.
This new volume presents a wealth of fresh data documenting and
analyzing the different positions taken by governments in the
development of the European Constitution. It examines how such
decisions have substantial effects on the sovereignty of nation
states and on the lives of citizens, independent of the
ratification of a constitution. Few efforts have been made to
document constitution building in a systematic and comparative
manner, including the different steps and stages of this process.
This book examines European Constitution-building by tracing the
two-level policy formation process from the draft proposal of the
European Convention until the Intergovernmental Conference, which
finally adopted the document on the Constitution in June 2004.
Following a tight comparative framework, it sheds light on
reactions to the proposed constitution in the domestic arena of all
the actors involved. It includes a chapter on each of the original
ten member states and the fifteen accession states, plus key
chapters on the European Commission and European Parliament. This
book will be of strong interest to scholars and researchers of
European Union politics, comparative politics, and policy-making.
Referendums are playing an increasingly influential role in the
process of European integration. Starting with the entry of a first
wave of new European Community members in the 1970s, this
instrument of popular decision making has grown ever more
important. Later stages in the enlargement process of the European
Union have led to even more referendums. Indeed, European
integration was seriously jeopardized when Danish voters first
rejected the Maastricht Treaty and France's citizens almost joined
them. Yet we know very little about how referendums affect the
integration process. This landmark study bridges this gap in two
ways. First, it offers a thorough comparative analysis of
referendums that have occurred so far in the process of European
integration. Utilizing a detailed study of voting behavior by
citizens in these referendum campaigns, Simon Hug argues that
understanding this behavior is of crucial importance if we want to
accurately assess the impact of referendums on European
integration. The author then draws on his comparative data to
analyze the likely consequences of referendums based on those that
have taken place and proposals for new initiatives. With its
detailed empirical analysis and theoretical foundation, this book
makes an important contribution both to the study of referendums
and to our understanding of institutional reform and integration
within the EU.
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Value Change in Switzerland (Hardcover)
Hanspeter Kriesi, Simon Hug; Contributions by Laurant Bernhard, Simon Bornschier, Marc Buhlmann, …
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R2,591
Discovery Miles 25 910
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Ships in 12 - 19 working days
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Values form fundamental principles that help orient individuals in
their daily life, and as such are rather stable across time.
Changes in the political, economic, and social environment, as
those experienced by Switzerland in the last two decades, may
affect these value priorities through generational change and
individual reorientations. The present book documents how values
have changed over the last twenty years in Switzerland as it
navigated in the rough waters of an increasingly globalized
environment and a changing international political context. The
contributions show how Swiss citizens position themselves in their
social relations, including the large share of foreigners among the
residents in the Alpine republic. In particular, the book
highlights how religious values have changed in their meanings.
Contributions to this volume also show the consequences of value
change in the social and political sphere. Values influence the
citizens' views on European integration, their disposition to
provide volunteer work, their electoral choices, etc. The volume
thus offers a detailed view on how values have changed in
Switzerland and how these changes affected the social and political
sphere.
This new book presents a wealth of new data documenting and
analyzing the different positions taken by European governments in
the development of the European Constitution.
Understanding how constitutional decisions are taken in the EU is
of great societal and scientific relevance. This volume examines
how these decisions have substantial effects on the sovereignty of
nation states and on the lives of citizens, independent of the
ratification of a constitution. Few efforts have been made to
document constitution building in a systematic and comparative
manner, including the different steps and stages of this process.
This book examines European Constitution-building by tracing the
two-level policy formation process from the draft proposal of the
European Convention until the Intergovernmental Conference, which
finally adopted the document on the Constitution in June 2004.
Following a tight comparative framework, it sheds light on
reactions to the proposed constitution in the domestic arena of all
the actors involved. The volume includes a chapter on each of the
original ten member states and the fifteen accession states, plus
chapters on the European Commission and European Parliament.
Building a clear understanding of the affects of constitutional
decisions, this book will be of strong interest to scholars and
researchers of European Union politics, comparative politics, and
policy-making.
New political parties have regularly appeared in developed
democracies around the world. In some countries issues focusing on
the environment, immigration, economic decline, and regional
concerns have been brought to the forefront by new political
parties. In other countries these issues have been addressed by
established parties, and new issue-driven parties have failed to
form. Most current research is unable to explain why under certain
circumstances new issues or neglected old ones lead to the
formation of new parties. Based on a novel theoretical framework,
this study demonstrates the crucial interplay between established
parties and possible newcomers to explain the emergence of new
political parties.
Deriving stable hypotheses from a simple theoretical model, the
book proceeds to a study of party formation in twenty-two developed
democracies. New or neglected issues still appear as a driving
force in explaining the emergence of new parties, but their effect
is partially mediated by institutional factors, such as access to
the ballot, public support for parties, and the electoral system.
The hypotheses in part support existing theoretical work, but in
part present new insights. The theoretical model also pinpoints
problems of research design that are hardly addressed in the
comparative literature on new political parties. These insights
from the theoretical model lead to empirical tests that improve on
those employed in the literature and allow for a much-enhanced
understanding of the formation and the success of new
parties.
Simon Hug is Lecturer in Political Science, University of
Geneva.
Does power sharing bring peace? Policymakers around the world seem
to think so. Yet, while there are many successful examples of power
sharing in multi-ethnic states, such as Switzerland, South Africa
and Indonesia, other instances show that such arrangements offer no
guarantee against violent conflict, including Rwanda, Yugoslavia,
Zimbabwe and South Sudan. Given this mixed record, it is not
surprising that scholars disagree as to whether power sharing
actually reduces conflict. Based on systematic data and innovative
methods, this book comes to a mostly positive conclusion by
focusing on practices rather than merely formal institutions,
studying power sharing's preventive effect, analyzing how power
sharing is invoked in anticipation of conflict, and by showing that
territorial power sharing can be effective if combined with
inclusion at the center. The authors' findings demonstrate that
power sharing is usually the best option to reduce and prevent
civil conflict in divided states.
Does power sharing bring peace? Policymakers around the world seem
to think so. Yet, while there are many successful examples of power
sharing in multi-ethnic states, such as Switzerland, South Africa
and Indonesia, other instances show that such arrangements offer no
guarantee against violent conflict, including Rwanda, Yugoslavia,
Zimbabwe and South Sudan. Given this mixed record, it is not
surprising that scholars disagree as to whether power sharing
actually reduces conflict. Based on systematic data and innovative
methods, this book comes to a mostly positive conclusion by
focusing on practices rather than merely formal institutions,
studying power sharing's preventive effect, analyzing how power
sharing is invoked in anticipation of conflict, and by showing that
territorial power sharing can be effective if combined with
inclusion at the center. The authors' findings demonstrate that
power sharing is usually the best option to reduce and prevent
civil conflict in divided states.
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